Main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Thursday hit at government over what it described as a troubling pattern of corruption, impunity and electoral fraud.
Briefing reporters in Lilongwe, DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito called on President Lazarus Chakwera to fire Secretary to President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba, Transport Minister Jacob Hara and Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale, alleging that they know something about the fuel importation deal with suppliers in the United Arab Emirates.
But government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu has hit back at the DPP top executives who held the briefing, saying their party let corruption flourish on its watch when it was in power.
According to Mukhito, Malawi is on the verge of collapse due to unchecked looting of public funds, mismanagement and institutionalised corruption under the current administration.
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He said in the past four years, corruption had been institutionalised from the highest offices of the State to local administrative levels.
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The DPP chief executive officer observed that the theft of State resources continued unabated, with the economy taking a tumbling.
Among other things, Mukhito said illegal contracts, including the K1.5 trillion alleged fuel deal, raised suspicions of kickbacks and corruption.
“The G.E.T Fuel Deal: The Minister of Transport is implicated…
Responding to the concerns, Mec Chairperson, Judge Annabel Mtalimanja, said the commission had no plans to engage the services of independent ICT auditors.
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Mtalimanja also announced that the commission would still use EMDs as they recently proved effective during the recent pilot voter registration exercise.
“We have explained that our processes remain transparent and our stakeholders, including political parties, are going to be part and parcel of the process. They are going to be able to audit the voters’ register once the process has begun. We cannot grant access to the system itself because of security reasons,” she said.
On her part, DPP secretary general Peter Mukhito said the party would continue engaging Mec as they still wanted the commission to consider the use of the auditors.
“We will be asking for a definite answer. I mean, it’s a game and we are all players. They are the referees,” Mukhito said.
He also said the party was insisting on the use of a manual system during elections.
“We don’t trust the process and that is why we are saying ‘why don’t we go manual’. We have done manual and it has been successful. There are so many stories going around; so, to avoid those stories, we need is to go manual,” he said.
Taking her turn, Malawi Congress Party spokesperson Jessie Kabwila urged electoral stakeholders to refrain from interfering with Mec activities.
“Let’s learn to respect our own Constitution. When we say we want Mec to be autonomous, we mean they should be free from interference. I think any political party should leave Mec alone to do its job. What they should be asking is that Mec should demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that they are equipped to run this election,” Kabwila said.
According to Kabwila, the use of independent ICT auditors proved to be ineffective during the 2019 elections.
At the meeting, several electoral stakeholders raised concerns over national identity (ID) cards exercise.
The stakeholders, who included traditional leaders and officials from political parties and civil society organisations, argued that the national ID exercise was still facing challenges as many deserving Malawians were yet to be reached out with the services.
Responding to the issue, National Registration Bureau Principal Secretary Mphatso Sambo said some Malawians failed to register during the time the bureau was charging an amount for registration of the national IDs.
Sambo, however, said the exercise was ongoing and that people could visit their offices for registration.
“We have opened offices across the country and we are planning to be available close to the people. So, we, as NRB, are ready and we are working with the Malawi Electoral Commission to ensure that we have given them a clean civil register, where voter registration will be benchmarked,” Sambo said. According to Sambo, the bureau has, so far, registered 12 million Malawians.
Mec is expected to commence voter registration exercises on October 21 2024.
